Popular New England ’80s band reunites for first live show in 33 years

A new wave band from the 1980s that formed in New England reunited for its first concert in more than three decades.

‘Til Tuesday played its first gig in 33 years at Cruel World music festival in California on Tuesday, Stereogum reported.

The show was also ‘Til Tuesday’s first with its original lineup — consisting of Aimee Mann, Robert Holmes, Joey Pesce and Michael Hausman — in 35 years, according to the outlet.

‘Til Tuesday performed songs from all three of their albums, plus a cover of The Cars’ “Drive,” which Mann previously performed for the FX TV series “American Crime Story: The Assassination Of Gianni Versace” in 2018. The show closed with the band’s biggest hit, “Voices Carry.”

“This is a song that made us recognizable in airports across America,” Mann said before the final number.

An acclaimed alt-rock band from Massachusetts, ‘Til Tuesday was part of the New Wave/post-punk movement in the 1980s.

Mann formed the band in 1983 after studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston, according to AllMusic. The band played around the Boston area and eventually won WBCN’s Rock & Roll Rumble. ‘Til Tuesday signed with Epic Records shortly after and released their debut album “Voices Carry” in 1985. The album was certified gold by the RIAA while its title track landed on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The band released two more albums — “Welcome Home” in 1986 and “Everything’s Different Now” in 1988.

‘Til Tuesday broke up after the release of their third album. Meanwhile, Mann was involved in legal problems with Epic before officially launching her solo career in 1993. Her debut album, “Whatever,” was a critical success. Throughout the decade, Mann won two Grammy Awards and received an Oscar nomination for her song “Save Me” in the 1999 film “Magnolia.” The singer-songwriter also appeared in movies and TV shows like “The Big Lebowski,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “The West Wing” and “Portlandia.”

Mann told Variety that Hausman, the ‘Til Tuesday drummer who also is Mann’s manager, brought her the idea of doing a reunion show. She enjoyed the idea of having a challenge, but noted that the biggest struggle was singing the songs in the same way.

“There’s something that’s always appealing to me about having a goal that you have to practice for, if that makes sense. It’s a little bit like a puzzle to solve. Like, I wonder how we could pull that off, or if we could pull that off… There was a lot of curiosity," Mann told the outlet.

“The biggest hurdle for me has been that, especially in the early songs, I sing completely differently. And it’s been really hard for me to figure out how to sing that stuff, because I feel like that style was born out of playing in rock clubs and not really hearing what I was doing and just trying to sing as loud and high as possible. And I don’t know how to do that now.”

The Cruel World appearance was ‘Til Tuesday’s only scheduled concert to date, but Mann said it could open the door for future reunion shows.

“Everybody’s great. Like, everybody just developed into a sweet, nice person. And not that they weren’t before, but it’s nice when people don’t calcify into their worst selves. I hope that I could say the same thing about myself,” Mann told Variety. “I’m gonna see how this goes. If I feel like I can do a really good job singing, then I would consider others.”